sea gifts
by ro-blaze
Summary: while collecting seashells, levy makes a new friend. in a rather unusual way.


The water was halfway up her shins when Levy saw the dorsal fin.

It had been a long day of work—sitting some village children in the morning and then running around the shop for most of the afternoon. Levy had bid her parents goodbye before running off, eager to spend the last couple hours of sunlight doing her most favorite past time.

There were, after all, some positives in living just by the beach. (Even though the breeze could turn cold in times and they ended up with more bugs than most other places.) She'd run home from her parents' flower shop and then immediately headed out to the rocky shore just outside of their humble home.

For the hour and half of fun time she'd allowed herself, Levy had managed to fill half her bag with shells. Pride filled her chest every time she'd found a different piece in the water—some in soft cream, some in oily black—all unique. Some of the village kids had often called her strange for her fixation with the sea, but Levy could barely go through a day without the thick scent of saltwater and seaweed on her lungs, without the scrape of sand and wet stone against her soles.

And then she'd noticed the shark.

Sharks were not, exactly, a common occurrence at the reefs. They weren't particularly rare one either—sightings were known to happen at least once per week. Reef sharks were curious animals and often would wander close to the shore. There were many attractions for tourists in the area to go swimming with sharks. Back when she was little, a family friend had arranged Levy to go along one and she'd even managed to pet one. The people here, long used to their unusual neighbors, lacked some of the irrational fear inland people seemed to possess.

This particular shark, however, didn't seem to be exploring.

Levy bit her teeth as she slowly straightened up, sliding the last shell into her bag. The shore stood just to her right. 5 meters? 10, perhaps? She could run that for a second. But… it might be more. Without her glasses, she wasn't quite as able to perceive the distance.

And the shark… She couldn't pin it down. Oh, sure, the dark dorsal fin stuck like a sore thumb in the setting sun's blazing light. But what kind of shark was it? How far was it?

Could she outrun it?

Levy knelt down and dug her hand into the wet sand. Her fingers brushed something hard and smooth and she tried to take it. A gasp slipped from her lips at the sharp stinging sensation. When she pulled her hand out of the water, red dripped from her open palm.

Distress filled her mind and an uncharacteristically colorful line of curses fell from her mouth. Levy stood up, perhaps a bit too fast, and took a couple of shaky steps before she regained her balance. Her vision was swaying. She wasn't grossed out by the blood— she was a med student, for Heaven's sake—but the situation at hand terrified her. She tried to force out the violent memories of all those childhood encyclopedias about how sharks were able to smell blood from kilometers in the water, but they pushed against her walls. Her vision blurred at the edges, eyes locked on the dark dorsal fin in the distance. So Levy did the most logical thing her frantic mind could come up with.

She dropped her bag and ran.

Luck was definitely not on her side. Barely a few steps later she promptly stepped on another broken shell. Or perhaps the same one she'd cut her palm on. Burning pain shot up her leg and she cried out, doubling over into the water. The saltwater was stinging against her cuts and it made her eyes mist.

The waves splashed around her as she tried to regain her senses. The dark fin had moved closer and now she could see its colors—a band of white around the bottom of it that slowly darkened to the oily black tip. She couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't breathe—

Then the water moved and the fin shifted and something big and dark began raising from the water where it has just stood.

Levy threw all sense through the window and ran in the opposite direction, screaming bloody murder.

The thing was _calling_ her.

"Small human!" the thing yelled after her. "Don't go!"

Hallucinations. She was having _hallucinations_. She'd cut herself and got poisoned, or she'd inhaled too much water—

Something dark filled her vision and before she could react, Levy collided with a rock. The force of the impact made her lose her ground, her fingers feeling for the growing swell on her head.

It took a moment for her system to catch up, for her senses to take in her surroundings. A moment too much, it seemed. The soft sloshing of water announced the _thing's_ arrival.

Levy turned her head around to face it.

After the initial shock wore off, she saw it was… a person. A weird person with gray skin and what looked like gills and fins and— Breathe, she commanded herself and squared her shoulders. Then she lifted her head and stared right into it.

"Hello" she said, her voice as calm and even as her terrified state could keep it.

"Hello" the creature copied her, as if speaking a foreign language.

The thing was, for the lack of other words, _big_. The upper part of it resembled a person—that is, if people had scales and gills. From the waist under, it looked more than a shark than anything else. A big and long and strong and most likely able to kill shark.

"You're a mermaid" Levy blurted out.

She was surely having a hallucination. Mermaids weren't real—mermaids were the dream of a small, lonely little girl with no friends and no other way to entertain herself beside old fairytale books. Mermaids were children's animations. Mermaids were not real.

The thing stared at her, dark eyes shining from under a curtain of dark, wet hair. It tilted its head to the side. Small rivets dripped down the lines of its body. A drop fell from the tip of its nose.

Levy found herself unable to move, her back pressed to the rough stone as if it could provide some protection. Despite the fear that she was probably going to die, despite her instincts screaming for her to run, she was rooted to the place. Levy was _fixated_.

"Mermaid" the creature repeated, as if the word was foreign to it. It probably was. "I… I think so?"

"You think so?" Levy asked. Laughter bubbled in her chest—at the absurdity of the situation or at the confusion written all over the creature's face, she couldn't say. "You look like a mermaid."

"I look like a—" The thing blinked in confusion and then shook its head, sending water everywhere. Levy made a face at the sudden cold against her damp skin. It extended one of its limbs—its arm—to her. Its fingers were gripping the strap of her bag. "Yours?"

Her… her bag. The creature was chasing her because she dropped her bag. The creature wanted to give her back her bag. The creature had probably watched her while she collected her shells and didn't want all her work to go to waste.

Levy started laughing.

Her lungs ached with the force of her laughter, her stomach spasming. The thing did not attack or threaten her. It probably did not know how to deal with hysterical girls. Poor thing. Levy leaned against the rock and lifted her head to meet the creature's—the mermaid's eyes. She had lost her fear somewhere along its confused expression and its calm gaze. She wasn't afraid. Not anymore.

After slinging her bag over her shoulder, she offered the mermaid her hand.

"My name is Levy. It's—" she giggled, "it's my pleasure to meet you. Excuse my… initial reaction."

The mermaid stared at her hand. In the soft light of the setting sun, Levy had to admit it looked beautiful, like a drawing out of her old childhood books.

"You're supposed to shake it" she told it when it just stood there, the top half of it half submerged into the chilling water. "And then you say your name."

The mermaid nodded slowly, then lifted its hand from the water and wrapped it around hers. Levy expected it to be cold, like fish were—instead, she felt a gentle, reassuring heat against her skin, smooth scales brushing her palm. Its hand was larger than her own, with longer, stronger fingers with silvery webs between them and small calluses. She could hardly believe she had been afraid—no creature with such gentle hold and such kind eyes could be dangerous to her.

"Gajeel" the mermaid said slowly, shaking her hand as it spoke. "It's my plea— plea—"

"Pleasure?" Levy suggested.

"It's my pleasure to meet you." It seemed very proud of itself. "Levy. Sounds pretty."

Despite everything, Levy giggled again. She brushed the hair from her face and gave the mermaid her best smile.

"Thank you. So does yours." She slipped back into the water with a small "plop". "Thank you for bringing my bag."

It seemed to have some trouble putting its thoughts into words. Levy winced in sympathy. Human languages were different enough from each other—she couldn't imagine how much harder it would be for a non-human creature to change its whole way of speaking.

"Sorry. For scaring you" it said after a while.

Levy hummed and carefully headed back to where she'd been collecting her seashells. When she didn't hear any movement behind her, she lifted her head.

"Are you coming?"

With what she was sure was a relieved expression, the mermaid swam after her. Levy smiled to herself. She'd just made a new friend. A new magical friend.

7 years old her would be so happy if she knew.


End file.
